Life and times of an amateur athlete and my adventures as a weekend warrior - including my successful completion of Ironman Canada Subaru 2009

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The beauty of team support

Once a coach always a coach

Mondays are the last day of my 6 day training schedule and I look forward to Tuesdays because I know it is a rest day or more appropriately my Physio/chiro day.

Mondays I ride to work and back and then swim in the evening. Last night I was exhausted - I am usually a little tired - mostly because my club meets at 9pm but once I am in the water I am usually fine. Last night I dove in the water and started my lengths and I just felt lethargic, even my arms felt heavy. After the 600m warm-up I still was not feeling it - so I moved over to the other lane so I would not hold up people.

I continued doing my laps, I figured I could work on my form - ever hopeful that I will discover the magic combination that will turn me into a sleek aerodynamic swimming machine. Anyways the beauty of team support - there is a lady who comes out and swims she uses flippers and basically does 50 m and then takes a break and I was in her lane now. I had just finished a 100m and was changing from paddles to pull buoy and overheard her talking with our coach. She was saying that it was impossible for her to do 200m - never going to happen and he was trying to coax her saying that she could and just go for it. She said again she could not and Coach was looking a little frustrated.

Being a running coach I know how frustrating it can be when someone just does not believe. So I looked at her and said of course you can do it. She looked at me and said oh no - I could never do that. I said to her - I know you can do it, coach knows and you know you can- youjust have to believe. I told her your mind is holding you back. She said "believe" and I said yes believe - you are completely capable the only thing holding you back right now is your mind. You are physically more than capable and you just need to believe cause I know you can do it. Really it is only 8 laps - you can do it. Go for it. I then turned and swam off for my next 100 m.

As I was swimming I noticed her leave the wall watched her get the first 50 turn and keep going... then the next 50, I called out to coach and pointed and he nodded and smiled. She kept going until she had done the full 200. When I finished my next set she was taking a breather and was so excited - it was great. She was like THANK YOU - and I said "you are welcome but you did the hard work so congratulations" - I knew she could do it, everyone in the lane told her what a great job she had done. She was so pleased that she went out and did another 200m two more times!

But in the end I won because her excitement helped me to dig deeper and do the workout. I had told her it was a state of mind and that she was totally able to do it and in the end while I still felt lethargic I picked up for the last 20 min and pushed through because of her energy. I told her thanks later that she helped me also get through the workout. So in the end we both helped each other.

About Me

I am an IRONMAN. I set this blog up to share a little about my journey to Ironman but mostly to introduce you to some truly fabulous women I run and train with and possibly inspire a few of you to get off the couch and do something. My friends and I come from all spectrum's of life and all age groups some of us are faster than others, some of us are beginners, some are in their 20's, some in their 50's, some only run 10km, some do Ultra's (50km and over) but the one thing we all have in common is that we like an adventure, a challenge, to push the envelope, and to have a whole lot of fun while we do it. Oh and we never, EVER unless it is physically impossible quit! It is not about the time or where we placed it is about finishing what we started, supporting each other and inspiring each other to be all we can be, looking at task and saying How Bad can it Be? and then learning that it was pretty bad but we survived and then finding the next event or adventure and doing it all over again. Hope you enjoy the read. Peace out